The present invention relates to the construction, deployment and operation of underwater platform structures and the like, as for enabling underwater illumination and/or target detection and the like, being more particularly directed to modular structures formed of hollow pipes or tubes interconnected into three-dimensional geometric structures capable of being submerged from the water surface by flooding, and deployed at predetermined underwater regions, as for supporting underwater camera, lighting and sensing equipments and the like, and of being recovered from the surface by refloating by compressed air or other gas without the need for a diver or recovery vehicle or lifting lines, as for the purpose of servicing on the surface, and then re-submerging by re-flooding for further underwater deployment.
A myriad of underwater platform structures and mounts have been employed over the years for positioning various types of equipments and personnel, generally requiring lines to the surface or lifting vehicles and the like and/or diver recovery.
In underwater camera, lighting and sonar monitoring in researches at the oceans and in lakes, as, for example, Loch Ness, Scotland, over the years, resort has been had to weighted frame structures lowered by ropes, lines, or chains from the surface and deployed from boats, rafts, tethers or buoys, and recovered by the lifting of lines, or, if the structure was released to the bottom, lifting by diver assistance. Such structures and deployment are described, for example, by Rines, Edgerton, Wyckoff, and Klein in the MIT Technology Review of March-April 1976, Vol. 78, No. 5, pp. 25-40, xe2x80x9cSearch for the Loch Ness Monsterxe2x80x9d; Institute of Electrical and Electronic. Engineers Spectrum, February 1978, page 229, xe2x80x9cLoch Ness Revisitedxe2x80x9d, Edgerton and Wyckoff; and in the National Geographic, June 1977.
For such and similar underwater research and activities, the frame not only supported the underwater camera equipment but also the underwater lights, generally beamed into the region directly in front of the camera lens; for example, strobe flash units secured to the side of the camera on the frame. Sonar transducers for obtaining sonar traces and/or triggering elapsed time strobe photography were also carried by the framexe2x80x94the unit being submerged by lines from the surface.
More recently, following a recent further expedition if the Academy of Applied Science at Loch Ness reported by Nova-PBS in its January 1999 documentary, xe2x80x9cThe Beast of Loch Nessxe2x80x9d, researcher Charles Wyckoff found that the debilitating rapid attenuation and scatter of light directed out from the camera frame toward underwater targets and then again suffered on the return reflection to the camera, can be significantly obviated by mounting the lights considerably forward of the camera frame, directed somewhat forward and upward, providing an increased photographic range by impinging the light on the target closer to the target and avoiding the two-way scatter of common frame mounted cameras and lights.
This required the use of multiple equipment-mounting structures and the complexity of multiple sets of tethering lines and accompanying deployment headaches.
It was particularly to the solution of such additional complexities that the present invention was created, the desire being to create novel lightweight modular frames or platforms that could be floated into position, submerged and recovered independently and without lines or diversxe2x80x94a specification that has been realized with the novel construction of the present invention, admitting also of extreme ease of handling, equipment attachment, deployment, adjustment and adapted to cover zones of any desired extent or configuration.
This has been achieved through novel interconnected buoyant hollow tubes or pipes formed into a geometric structurexe2x80x94preferably a truncated tetrahedron, submersible by automatic flooding when placed on the surface of the water and with stability of orientation during submerging; and, when desired, refloatable by a compressed air hose attachment. The modular structure is particularly adapted through its tubular element construction to mount underwater reflector lamps, video and other camera tubes, cylindrical and other sonar transducers and other devices, and through use of simple clamps and strappings, permit of ready servicing and adjustment on the surfacexe2x80x94and if a diver is available, on the bottom or in the mid-column, as well. The flooding inlets, moreover, also can serve as legs for stabilizing position on the bottom, and the modular platforms are readily distributed over any desired zone, at different regions or locations in front of and to the side of the camera platform, with easy light-weight adjustment, (again underwater by a diver if available), creating near, mid-and far zones of distant lighting zones on either side of the center line of the camera platform, overlapping and illuminating both near and far areasxe2x80x94and including adding the facility for distant silhouette imaging, as well.
A primary object of the invention, accordingly, is to provide a new and improved method of constructing, deploying and operating novel submersible and refloatable modular underwater tubular platform structures for the above and related purposes that obviates the above-described and other limitations and problems with prior art frames, and platforms and their deployment.
A further object is to provide such a novel modular platform structure that is particularly designed for deployment in numbers and patterns that enable wide underwater zone lighting remote from monitoring camera structures and that is especially suited for systems employing underwater target-detection sensing and automatic triggering of such lighting zones in response thereto.
Other and further objects will be explained hereinafter and are more particularly defined in the appended claims.
In summary, however, from one of its viewpoints, the invention embraces a method of providing and deploying one or more submersible and re-floatable underwater platforms, for supporting one or more underwater light, camera and underwater target or other sensing equipments, that comprises, interconnecting hollow sections of buoyant pipes in a geometric structure to form each platform, and with each structure having water-floodable sections and intermediate baffle sections symmetrically positioned in the structure; providing for each platform structure, water inlets at the bottom of the structure for admitting water into the floodable sections as the platform is placed on the surface of the water, thereby to cause the structure to become heavier than the water and to submerge at a desired underwater region, steadied during submerging by flow control at the baffle sections, providing for each structure a compressed air or other gas inlet near the top of the structure for enabling the connection thereto of a compressed air or other gas hose; and, when it is desired to recover the submerged platform(s), as for servicing and re-deploying of the equipments, introducing the compressed air or other gas through the hose inlet and into the flooded sections to force the water therein out of said water inlets, gradually restoring the buoyancy of the structure and permitting its re-floating to the surface.
As another feature, the invention includes a submersible and refloatable underwater support platform, having, in combination, interconnected hollow sections of buoyant pipes formed into a geometric structure having water floodable sections and intermediate baffle sections symmetrically positioned in the structure; water inlets provided at the bottom of the structure for admitting water into the floodable sections as the platform is placed on the surface of the water, thereby to cause the structure to become heavier than the water and to submerge, steadied during the submerging by the flow control by the baffle sections; a compressed air or other gas inlet provided near the top of the structure for enabling the connection thereto of a compressed air or other gas hose; and means operable when it is desired to recover the submerged platform 1, compressed air or other gas may be introduced through the hose inlet and into the water-flooded platform sections to drive the water therein out of said water inlets, gradually restoring the buoyancy of the structure and permitting its rise and refloating to the surface, again as steadied by the flow control of the baffle sections; and wherein one or more of underwater light, camera and underwater target sensor equipment is externally attached and oriented at predetermined regions of the pipe structure before submerging; the same being serviceable at the surface upon refloating.
Preferred and best mode designs, configurations and deployment arrangements are later detailed.